HOTELS BY DAVID CHURCHILL
BRAND NEW GLOBAL HOTELIERS ARE BACKING NEW LIFESTYLE
BRANDS TO BOOST BUSINESS, BUT HAS THE MILLENNIALS’ NARRATIVE DRIVING EXPANSION ALREADY WANED?
REGULAR BUSINESS TRAVELLERS TO BRUSSELS heading for the political heart of the EU are likely to get a surprise next spring: the 149-room Radisson Blu EU hotel, close to the Berlaymont and European Parliament build- ings, will switch its brand identity to become the first of a new lifestyle concept from global hotel group Rezidor. The current Radisson Blu EU (not to be confused
with the Radisson Blu Royal, also in Brussels) will close for refurbishment and renovation this December, transforming into a Radisson Red instead – an ‘edgy’ new brand described by Rezidor CEO Wolfgang Neumann as being inspired by “the highly connected, high-octane and design-savvy Millennial lifestyle”. This inevitably means trendily designed rooms and public spaces, along with such lifestyle choices as a 24/7 deli and bar. While Brussels will be Radisson Red’s first
European property when it re-opens in April, it may not be the first worldwide, as the industrial city of Shenyang Hunnan in northeastern China is also slated to get a Radisson Red early next year as part of a massive new commercial development. A Radisson Red is set to open in Cape Town later next year, with 60 Reds planned by 2020. But Radisson’s ‘leftwards lurch’ from Blu to Red in Europe’s political capital will mark an even more
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significant move for Rezidor: a belated attempt for the group with a rather staid and sensible reputation to catch up with rival global hotel chains already chasing the new younger generation of travellers, collectively described as Generation Y (aka Millennials – broadly speaking, those aged between their late teens and mid-30s).
CROWDED SPACE
No chain with global aspirations in the 21st century, it seems, can afford to be without its own ‘edgy’ brand – Marriott’s Moxy, for example, or Hilton’s Canopy banner, unfurled earlier this year – to target this group. However, it is fast becoming a crowded space. Hyatt jumped onboard this year with the launch of Hyatt Centric – a new ‘upper upscale’ city-centre (hence Centric) brand to meet the needs of travellers “looking for a cosmopolitan vibe in the centre of the action”, according to Hyatt CEO Mark Hoplamazian. Two Hyatt Centric properties, in Chicago and Miami, have already opened, with more than a dozen possibly due before the end of the year. Best Western International, the mainly mid- market network of about 4,000 hotels worldwide, which had never previously been considered ‘on trend’, has joined the fray with its own version of a lifestyle brand called Vib (pronounced ‘vibe’).
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